JP2952100B2 - Ink storage section sealing member and recording head having the same - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a thin film member applied to an ink outlet (discharge port or the like), an air communication port, or a temporary fixing portion of an ink recording head, and a recording head having the same. In the case where the present invention is suitably used, a seal tape can be used.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An ink jet recording apparatus is generally provided with a capping device provided with an ink absorber so as to cover a surface provided with ink discharge ports as described in JP-A-59-198161. In order to prevent clogging of nozzles during transportation of the apparatus and to prevent defective ink ejection, a method has been employed.

Recently, a cartridge type ink jet recording head integrated with an ink tank has been developed, and a protective member for the surface of the discharge port by using a method without using a capping device has been proposed. For example, as described in JP-A-60-204348, a cap-shaped protection member having an ink absorber is provided at an ejection port, or as disclosed in JP-A-61-125.
As described in JP-A-851, a sealant using a vinylidene chloride resin as a base material is typically used as a protective tape for an ejection port.

[0004]

[Problems to be solved by the invention]
In the above-described conventional capping apparatus, there is a possibility that ink may overflow during transportation of the ink jet recording apparatus due to vibration or the like, and the inside of the recording apparatus may be soiled.

An analysis of this phenomenon reveals that it is more reliant on the overall characteristics including the adhesive portion of the sealing member itself for openings and joints where there is a risk of ink overflowing than the adhesive force of the adhesive. It turned out. In the present invention, by examining this characteristic from various aspects, it has been clarified that the sealing member, particularly a thin film, for example, a tape-like elongation or bending state is important for environmental change and durability. Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to eliminate the necessity of using a cap-shaped protection member for fixing the sealing member by giving appropriate conditions to the ink storage unit.

[0006] Taking a protective seal tape as an example, a protective seal tape composed of at least a support and an adhesive laminated on the support has heretofore been inadequately sealable to an uneven surface. In addition, peeling proceeds during long-term storage, which causes ink leakage. Therefore,
It is important that the surface on which the sealing member is disposed has a stepped structure, that is, a structure including a concave portion, a convex portion, a discontinuous portion, or the like, so as to maintain the ink leakage prevention for a long time.

An object of the present invention is to prevent leakage of ink by a sealing member alone at the time of physical distribution and to carry out stable long-term storage of an ink storage unit and an ink jet recording head. .

In particular, in addition to the above-mentioned main purpose, the ink jet surface of the recording head can be used as an ink jet recording head immediately without affecting the eluate from the adhesive portion of the sealing member or the residual adhesive during use. It is an object of the present invention to provide a protective seal tape for an ink jet recording head which can achieve the purpose of use.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention achieves the above-mentioned main object, and provides a communication port from the inside to the outside of a recording storage section having ink therein or a bonding section through an adhesive section. A sealing member to be closed, wherein the sealing member provided with the adhesive portion has a tensile speed of 200 mm / min ± 10% in accordance with JIS-K-7113, and has a width of 10 mm when the yield of the test piece is 10 mm. A sealing member having a load of 1 kgf / cm or less, the sealing member having the adhesive portion, or the sealing member having an adhesive portion in addition to the sealing member. The member has a free length of 10 mm from the fixing portion, and the bending load at the center of the electronic balance at a distance of 5 mm from the fulcrum on the fixing portion side is 0.10 g / cm or less with respect to the width of the sealing member. It is a sealing member.

The sealing member is effective for a portion where the normal ink is present near the ink ejection portion corresponding to the energy generating element of the recording head, and in this case, the remaining adhesive component is further reduced. In order to achieve the object, the pressure-sensitive adhesive has an alkyl acrylate containing an OH group and / or an alkoxyalkyl acrylate and an acrylate having a C4 to C9 alkyl group or a side chain of an alkoxyalkyl group. The optimal configuration is an acrylic ester copolymer obtained by crosslinking an acrylic acid copolymer obtained by using at least 80% by weight or more with isocyanate with isocyanate.

[0011] Of the above conditions, when the portion to be closed by the seal member has a stepped structure, the bending load is 0.05 g / cm or more and 0.01 g / cm or more, so that more effective maintenance can be achieved. Can be achieved.

The sealing member of the present invention is suitably used for an ink jet recording head, and protects a discharge portion of the ink jet recording head and prevents ink leakage from the discharge port even during long-term storage.

Further, the sealing member having the above-mentioned pressure-sensitive adhesive is quickly peeled again even when the ink jet recording head is used after long-term storage, and there is no contamination of the discharge port of the ink jet recording head and its surroundings, thus improving the ink jet recording. It was good.

According to any of the present invention, the above-mentioned object can be achieved by itself without using an additional structure for preventing peeling, that is, a protective member (for example, a pressing member for preventing peeling of a seal tape). Was able to achieve.

Here, in the present invention, JIS-K-71
13, the pulling speed is 200 mm / min ± 10
The load at the time of yield when the width of the test piece is 10 mm when the percentage is set will be briefly described. Conventionally, there is no appropriate criterion for evaluating the sealing property to the surface such as the surface of the ejection port of the ink jet recording head. It began by seeking a standard for evaluating the sealability to the surface (in the case where the joint is included including the part). JIS-K-71
13 itself is not a standard applied to a sealing member as in the present invention, but as a result of intensive studies, the present inventors have set the conditions to a test specimen width of 10 mm and a pulling speed of 200.
By using the load itself at the time of yielding at mm / min ± 10% as a criterion, it was possible to determine the characteristics of the thin-film sealing member provided with the adhesive portion. The fact that the load at the time of yielding is 1 kgf / cm indicates a critical condition. If it exceeds 1 kgf / cm, long-term stable sealing cannot be performed on the bonding region containing ink.

When the test piece has a width other than 10 mm, the measured value is converted to a width of 10 mm and can be regarded as the load at the time of yielding. The unit of the load at the time of yielding in the present invention is (kgf / kg).
cm).

In addition to the load at the time of yielding, or as another independent criterion, the sealing member provided with the adhesive portion has a free length of 10 mm from the fixed portion and 5 mm from the fulcrum on the fixed portion side. By using the bending load at the center of the electronic balance separated by a distance as a criterion, at least the free length is 10 mm
It has been found that the characteristics can be properly determined for the above sealing members. According to this criteria, 0.10 g
/ Cm indicates a critical condition, and when it exceeds 0.07 g / cm, the peeling problem suddenly becomes remarkable. On the other hand, the bending load was 0.10 g under these measurement conditions.
/ Cm or less means that a long-term and stable sealing effect can be obtained for the ink storage section.

As the pressure-sensitive adhesive, conventionally known materials can be used, and acrylic materials are preferable. In particular, the pressure-sensitive adhesive is preferably an alkyl acrylate containing an OH group and / or an alkoxyalkyl acrylate, and a C4 to C9 alkyl. An acrylate copolymer obtained by crosslinking an acrylate copolymer obtained by using at least 80% by weight or more of a acrylate having a side chain of an alkoxy group or an alkoxyalkyl group with an isocyanate is preferable.

The acrylic monomers used for the acrylic pressure-sensitive adhesive include methyl acrylate, ethyl acrylate, propyl acrylate, isopropyl acrylate, butyl acrylate, isobutyl acrylate,
-Methylbutyl acrylate, 2-ethylbutyl acrylate, 3-methylbutyl acrylate, 1,3-dimethylbutyl acrylate, pentyl acrylate, 3-
Pentyl acrylate, hexyl acrylate, 2-ethylhexyl acrylate, heptyl acrylate, 2
-Heptyl acrylate, octyl acrylate, 2-
Examples include alkoxyalkyl ester monomers such as octyl acrylate and nonyl acrylate. These monomers are used in the range of 50 to 100% by weight in total with the hydroxyl group-containing monomer described below, and more preferably in the range of 50 to 80% by weight.

Examples of the polyvalent isocyanate compound include triresin diisocyanate, hexamethylene diisocyanate, diphenylmethane diisocyanate, isophorone diisocyanate, xylylene diisocyanate, bis (isocyanatomethyl) cyclohexane, dicyclohexylmethane diisocyanate, lysine diisocyanate, trimethylhexamethylene diisocyanate, and triresin. Isocyanates, adducts of hexamethylene diisocyanate, urethane-modified, alphanate-modified, burette-modified, allophanate-modified, urethane prepolymers (oligomer compounds having an isocyanate group at the terminal end) and the like are used.

A first method for adjusting the cohesiveness of the pressure-sensitive adhesive is to copolymerize a hydroxyl group-containing monomer and carry out crosslinking with a polyvalent isocyanate compound. As the hydroxyl group-containing monomer, 2-hydroxyethyl acrylate, 2-hydroxypropyl acrylate, hydroxybutyl acrylate, 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate, 2-hydroxypropyl methacrylate,
Hydroxybutyl methacrylate, polyhydric alcohol acrylate, polyhydric alcohol methacrylate, ethyl carbitol acrylate, methyl triglycol acrylate, 2-hydroxyethyl acryloyl phosphate, proxy ethyl acrylate, and the like are used. The hydroxyl group-containing monomer is used in a range of 5% or more and less than 25% by weight, and a part and / or all of the monomer is crosslinked with a polyvalent isocyanate.

As a second method of adjusting the cohesiveness of the pressure-sensitive adhesive, a methacrylate monomer, vinyl acetate, styrene, acrylonitrile, acrylamide, methacrylamide, or the like is appropriately used as a copolymer component.
These are used in the range of 5% or more and less than 15% by weight. Among these are acrylonitrile, acrylamide,
Methacrylamide is particularly suitable for the ink jet recording head of the present invention.

A third method for adjusting the cohesiveness of the pressure-sensitive adhesive is to carry out crosslinking using N-methylolacrylamide, N-methylolmethacrylate, diacetoneacrylamide, or butoxymethylacrylamide. This crosslinking monomer is preferably used in a range of 5 to less than 15% by weight.

As an adhesive more suitable for an ink jet recording head, it is preferable to use the second and third cohesiveness adjustments in combination with the first cohesiveness adjustment.

The pressure-sensitive adhesive used in the present invention has excellent chemical resistance to ink-jet inks, has low elution of organic substances, has low content of polyvalent metals, and has excellent physical properties for protecting nozzle surfaces of ink-jet recording heads. .

The production of the pressure-sensitive adhesive is carried out by using the above-mentioned materials and using a conventionally known polymerization method to obtain a weight-average molecular weight of 250,000 to 1
One million high polymers. At this time, it is important that the low polymer and the residual monomer are not contained as much as possible, and strict control is required for the polymerization method and the polymerization conditions. For removing the low polymer and the residual monomer, a method based on a reprecipitation method is preferable. The polymer thus obtained is dissolved in a good solvent, and diisocyanate is added to obtain a paint. The coating material is formed into a pressure-sensitive adhesive layer (dry layer thickness) on a support film, which will be described later, in a range of 5 μm to 100 μm by a conventionally known method, for example, a blade coater, an air knife coater, a roll coater, a brush coater, and a curtain coater. , A barb coater, a bar coater, a gravure coater or the like, and dried by a conventionally known method. In some cases, after drying is completed, an aging treatment is further performed at an arbitrary temperature in order to stabilize the performance of the pressure-sensitive adhesive.

As the support of the pressure-sensitive adhesive used in the present invention, paper and film can be used as long as the seal tape combined with the pressure-sensitive adhesive satisfies the present invention according to the above-mentioned criteria. From the viewpoints of durability, weather resistance, and the like, synthetic papers and films made of plastic are preferable. As the film, polyethylene terephthalate, polyethylene, polypropylene, polyvinyl chloride, polyvinylidene chloride, vinylidene chloride-vinyl chloride copolymer, polyvinyl fluoride, polyvinylidene fluoride, tetrafluoroethylene-ethylene copolymer, tetrafluoroethylene- Hexafluoropropylene-perfluoroalkyl vinyl ether copolymer and the like can be mentioned. However, considering that the adhesive tape is peeled off and discarded when the ink jet recording head is used, polyethylene terephthalate, polyethylene, and polypropylene, which do not generate harmful gas during combustion, are more preferable. Although the thickness of the support is not particularly limited, it is preferably 5 μm or more and 100 μm or less, more preferably 10 μm or more and 50 μm or less for a protective seal tape. The support may be colored by printing, impregnation or the like. Furthermore, in order to improve the adhesiveness between the adhesive and the support, the action of a high-frequency AC electric field, ion irradiation, electron irradiation, physical pretreatment using corona discharge, etc. It is preferable to apply a coated chemical pretreatment to the support.

Although not directly involved in the present invention, a preferred method for handling the seal tape of the present invention is to keep the adhesive tape side of the seal tape of the present invention on a release-treated substrate. That is.

The protective seal tape of the present invention is effective even on the surface of the ink jet recording head where the discharge port surface has been subjected to ink repellent treatment, and maintains good sealing properties without deteriorating the tape and the discharge port surface. Things. The surface treated with the ink repellent is, for example, silicon oil,
The surface of the head is treated with a fluorine-containing low molecular weight or high molecular weight compound. Specifically, KP-801 (trade name Shin-Etsu Silicon), Defenser (trade name Dainippon Ink), C
TX-105, -805 (trade name Asahi Glass) Teflon AF
(Dupont, trade name) and the like.

Any method may be used for the attachment, but it is preferable to apply a load of several kg / cm ² or less so as not to damage the surface of the discharge port of the ink jet recording head. The pressing time is preferably from several seconds to about 10 minutes. It is very preferable to apply a temperature when bonding.

[0031]

FIG. 2 shows an ink recording to which the present invention is applied.
This will be described with reference to FIG.

Next, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 2 shows an ink jet cartridge 1 used in an ink jet recording apparatus according to one embodiment of the present invention.
1 is a perspective view, and FIG. 3 is an exploded view showing the configuration of the ink jet cartridge 11. Hereinafter, description will be made mainly with reference to FIG.
For drawings to be referred to together, the drawing numbers are written in parentheses.

The ink-jet cartridge 11 includes an ink-jet head 12 corresponding to a recording head integrally formed with a large number of discharge ports 30, and an ink-jet unit including the ink-jet head 12, in which electric wiring and ink piping are integrated. 13 and an ink tank 14 for storing ink are integrally provided.
In the ink jet cartridge 11 of this example, the ink storage ratio is larger than that of the conventional ink cartridge, and the ink jet unit 1 is slightly smaller than the front surface of the ink tank 14.
3 has a protruding tip. The ink jet cartridge 11 is of a disposable type that is fixedly supported by positioning means and electrical contacts of a carriage 16 mounted on the ink jet recording apparatus main body 15, which will be described later, and is detachable from the carriage 16 ( See FIG. 6).

First, the configuration of the ink jet head 12 will be described.

As shown in FIG. 4, an applied voltage is supplied to the inkjet head 12 to generate thermal energy in order to discharge a recording liquid (ink) from a plurality of discharge ports 30 provided in a row. An electrothermal converter 40 is provided for each liquid path. Then, by applying a drive signal, heat energy is generated in the electrothermal transducer 40 to cause film boiling, thereby forming bubbles in the ink liquid path.
Then, the ink droplet is ejected from the ejection port 30 by the growth of the bubble. Each electrothermal converter 40 is provided on a heater board 100 made of a silicon substrate, and is integrally formed with a wiring (not shown) of aluminum or the like for supplying power to each electrothermal converter 40 by a film forming technique. . A grooved top plate 1300 provided with a partition for dividing a plurality of ink flow paths, a common liquid chamber 1301 for temporarily storing ink supplied to each ink flow path, and the like.
And a common liquid chamber 1301
And an orifice plate 400 having a plurality of discharge ports 30 corresponding to the respective ink flow paths are integrally formed, and polysulfone is preferable as the material, but polyether sulfone, polyphenylene oxide, Other molding resin materials such as polypropylene may be used.

Next, the configuration of the ink jet unit 13 will be described.

One end of the wiring board 200 is interconnected with a wiring portion of the heater board 100 of the ink jet head 12, and the other end of the wiring board 200 is provided with each electric heat for receiving an electric signal from the main unit. A plurality of pads 201 corresponding to the converter 40 (FIG. 4) are provided. As a result, the electric signal from the main device is supplied to each electrothermal converter 40.

A metal support 300 that supports the back surface of the wiring board 200 on a plane serves as a bottom plate of the ink jet unit 13. The holding spring 500 is M-shaped,
At the center of the letter, the common liquid chamber 1301 (FIG. 4) is pressed with light pressure, and a part of the liquid path, preferably in the vicinity of the discharge port 30, is concentrated and pressed with linear pressure at the front drooping part 501. The heater board 100 and the top plate 1300 are connected to each other by the foot of the pressing spring 500 passing through the hole 3121 of the support 300.
Are engaged in a sandwiched state by being engaged with each other, and are pressed and fixed to each other by the concentrated biasing force of the pressing spring 500 and the front drooping portion 501 thereof. The support 300 is
In addition to the holes 312, 1900, and 2000 that engage with the two positioning protrusions 1012 and the positioning and heat fusion holding projections 1800 and 1801, respectively, of the ink tank 14, the positioning projection 25 for the carriage 16 is provided.
00, 2600 on the back side. Also, the support 3
00 is an ink supply pipe 220 from the ink tank 14.
A hole 320 is provided to allow 0 (described later) to pass therethrough. Attachment of the wiring board 200 to the support 300
It is performed by sticking with an adhesive or the like.

Depressions 2400, 2400 of support 300
Are provided in the vicinity of the projections 2500 and 2600, respectively.
(FIG. 2), three sides around the parallel groove 3000,
Unnecessary substances such as dust and ink are located at the extension point of the tip end region of the head formed in step 3001.
Not to reach. As shown in FIG. 6, the lid member 800 in which the parallel grooves 3000 are formed forms the outer wall of the ink jet cartridge 11 and also forms a space for accommodating the ink jet unit 13 with the ink tank 14. Also, the parallel groove 3001
Is formed as a cantilever with the ink supply pipe 2200 side fixed, and the ink supply pipe 600 connected to the ink supply pipe 2000 is connected to the fixed side of the ink supply pipe 2200. A sealing pin 602 for ensuring a capillary phenomenon between the sealing pin 602 and the base member 2200 is inserted. The packing 6 for sealing the ink tank 14 and the ink supply pipe 2200 is connected.
01 is provided, and a filter 700 is provided at an end of the ink supply pipe 2200 on the ink tank 14 side.

Since the ink supply member 600 is made by molding, it is inexpensive, has high positional accuracy, does not cause a reduction in manufacturing accuracy, and has a cantilevered ink conduit 16.
00 and the ink conduit 1600 even during mass production.
Of the ink receiving port 1500 is stable. In this example, a more complete communication state can be reliably obtained only by pouring the sealing adhesive from the ink supply member 600 side under the pressure contact state. The fixing of the ink supply member 600 to the support 300 is performed by connecting two pins (not shown) on the back surface of the ink supply member 600 to the support 30.
This can be easily performed by projecting through the holes 1901 and 1902, respectively, and heat-sealing them. The slightly protruding area of the heat-sealed back surface is the ink tank 1
4 is accommodated in a recess (not shown) on the side surface on the side to which the ink jet unit 13 is attached, so that the positioning surface of the ink jet unit 13 can be accurately obtained.

Next, the structure of the ink tank 14 will be described.

The ink tank 14 includes the cartridge body 1
000, an ink absorber 900, and a cover member 1100. The ink absorber 900 is formed by inserting the ink absorber 900 into the cartridge body 1000 from the side opposite to the ink jet unit 13 and then sealing the same with the cover member 1100.

The ink absorber 900 is for impregnating and holding the ink.
Is placed within. The details will be described later. The ink supply port 1200 supplies the ink to the inkjet unit 13 and also serves as a supply port for impregnating the ink into the ink absorber 900 in the process of assembling the inkjet cartridge 11. Further, the ink tank 14 is provided with an air communication port 1401 for communicating the atmosphere to the inside, and a lyophobic material 1400 is disposed inside the ink communication port 1401 to prevent the ink from leaking from the air communication port 1401. I have.

In the present embodiment, in order to supply ink from the ink absorber 900 satisfactorily, the cartridge body 100
0 and the partial rib 231 of the lid member 1100
0,2320, the air existing area in the ink tank 14 is formed so as to be continuous from the atmosphere communication port 1401 side and formed over the area of the corner farthest from the ink supply port 1200. Absorber 90
It is important that relatively good and uniform ink supply to 0 is performed from the ink supply port 1200 side. This method is extremely effective in practice. This rib 2300
Are provided on the rear surface of the cartridge main body 1000 of the ink tank 14 in parallel with the moving direction of the carriage 16 (FIG. 7), to prevent the ink absorber 900 from sticking to the rear surface. Also, the partial ribs 2310, 2
320 are provided on the inner surface of the lid member 1100 corresponding to each of the ribs 2300 and extending therefrom.
Unlike the rib 2300, the rib 2300 is in a divided state, so that the space where air exists is larger than that of the former. Note that the partial ribs 2310 and 2320 are distributed on a surface that is less than half the total area of the lid member 1100. With these ribs, the ink in the corner area farthest from the ink supply port 1200 of the ink absorber 900 was more stably guided to the ink supply port 1200 side by capillary force.

The above-described arrangement of the ribs is particularly effective because the ink accommodating space of the above-described ink tank 14 has a rectangular shape and has long sides on the side surfaces. In the case where the cover member 1100 has a long side or a cubic shape in the moving direction, the provision of the ribs on the entire lid member 1100 can stabilize the ink supply from the ink absorber 900. A rectangular parallelepiped shape is suitable for storing ink in a limited space as much as possible, but in order to use this stored ink for recording without waste, as described above, It is important to provide ribs capable of performing the above-described operation in two adjacent areas. Further, the inner rib of the ink tank 14 in this embodiment is
The ink absorbers 900 having a rectangular parallelepiped shape are arranged with a substantially uniform distribution in the thickness direction. This configuration is a configuration in which the ink consumption can be substantially maximized while the atmospheric pressure distribution is made uniform with respect to the ink consumption of the entire ink absorber 900. Further, the technical idea on the arrangement of the ribs will be described in detail. When an arc having a long side as a radius is drawn around the position where the ink supply port 1200 of the ink tank 14 is projected on the upper surface of the rectangular parallelepiped. It is important to arrange the ribs on the surface outside the arc so that the atmospheric pressure state is given to the absorber located outside the arc at an early stage. In this case, the air communication port of the ink tank is not limited to this example as long as the air can be introduced into the rib arrangement area.

In addition, in the present embodiment, the rear surface of the ink-jet cartridge 11 with respect to the ink-jet head 12 is flattened to minimize the required space when the ink-jet cartridge 11 is incorporated in the apparatus, and to maximize the ink storage amount. Therefore, not only can the device be miniaturized, but also the frequency of replacing the cartridge can be reduced, which is an excellent device. And the inkjet unit 1
Utilizing a rear portion of the space for integrating the air absorbing member 3, a protruding portion for the air communication port 1401 is formed there, and the inside of the protruding portion is hollowed, and the ink absorber 9 described above is formed here.
An atmospheric pressure supply space 1402 for the entire thickness of 00 is formed. With such a configuration, an excellent ink jet cartridge not seen in the past can be provided. Note that the atmospheric pressure supply space 1402 is a space much larger than the conventional one, and since the air communication port 1401 is located above, even if the ink separates from the ink absorber 900 due to some abnormality. , This atmospheric pressure supply space 1
The ink cartridge 402 can temporarily hold the ink, can be reliably collected by the ink absorber 900, and can provide an excellent cartridge without waste.

FIG. 5 shows the structure of the mounting surface of the ink tank 14 on which the ink jet unit 13 is mounted. It passes through substantially the center of the discharge port of the orifice plate 400 and passes through the bottom of the ink tank 14 or the carriage 16.
Let L ₁ be a straight line parallel to the mounting reference plane on the surface of the two.
012 are on the straight line L _1. The height of the protrusion 1012 is slightly lower than the thickness of the support 300, and the height of the support 30
Positioning of 0 is performed. _On the extension of the straight line L1 in this drawing, as shown in FIG. 5, there is a claw 2100 with which a 90 ° angle engaging surface 4002 of the positioning hook 4001 of the carriage 16 is engaged. acting force of the positioning is arranged to act in a plane parallel area to the reference surface including the straight line L ₁ for. As will be described later, these relationships are effective because the positioning accuracy of only the ink tank 14 is equivalent to the positioning accuracy of the ejection port of the inkjet head 12. Further, the fixing holes 190 are formed on the side of the ink tank 14 of the support 300.
The protrusions 1800 and 1801 of the ink tank 14 corresponding to 0 and 2000, respectively, are longer than the above-mentioned protrusions 1012, and the portions protruding through the support 300 are thermally fused to fix the support 300 to the side surfaces. It is for.
Straight line L passing through the projection 1800 is perpendicular to the line L ₁ of the above
_3, when a straight line L ₂ passing through the projection 1801, the straight line L ₃
Since the center of the ink supply port 1200 is located substantially at the top, the connection state between the ink supply port 1200 and the ink supply pipe 2200 is stabilized, and the load on these connection states is reduced even by dropping or impact. Further, the straight lines L ₂ and L ₃ do not coincide with each other, and the projections 1800 and 1801 are present around the protrusion 1012 on the ejection port side of the ink jet head 12, so that the positioning effect of the ink jet head 12 with respect to the ink tank 14 is further enhanced. Is born. In addition,
Curve L ₄ represents a outer wall position when mounting of the ink supply member 600. Since the projections 1800 and 1801 are along the curve L ₄ , sufficient strength and positional accuracy are given to the weight of the tip side configuration of the inkjet head 12. The leading edge 2700 of the ink tank 14 is
Is provided in the hole of the front plate 4000 (FIG. 6) to prevent the displacement of the ink tank 14 from becoming extremely bad. Retainer 210 for carriage 16
Reference numeral 1 denotes an upward direction which is provided for a bar (not shown) of the carriage 16 and which penetrates below the bar at a position where the ink jet cartridge 11 is pivotally mounted as described later to unnecessarily separate from the positioning position. This is a protective member for maintaining the mounted state even when a force is applied.

The ink tank 14 is covered with a cover member 800 after the ink jet unit 13 is mounted,
Although the ink-jet unit 13 has a shape surrounding the lower opening except for the lower opening, the lower opening for mounting on the carriage 16 as the ink-jet cartridge 11 is close to the carriage 16, so that a substantially four-sided surrounding space is formed. Would. Therefore, the heat generated from the inkjet head 12 in the surrounding space is effective as a heat retaining space in this space, but the temperature rises slightly during long-term continuous use. For this reason, in this embodiment, the ink jet cartridge 1
1, a slit 17 having a width smaller than this space is provided.
By providing 00, it was possible to prevent the temperature from rising and to make the temperature distribution of the entire inkjet unit 13 uniform without being affected by the environment.

When assembled as an ink jet cartridge 11, ink is supplied from the inside of the cartridge main body 1000 through an ink supply port 1200, a hole 320 provided in the support 300, and an introduction port provided on the middle and back sides of the ink supply member 600. After being supplied into the supply member 600 and passing through the inside, it flows into the common liquid chamber from an outlet through an appropriate supply pipe and the ink receiving port 1500 of the top plate 1300. In the connection section for ink communication described above,
For example, a packing made of silicon rubber, butyl rubber, or the like is provided, and sealing is performed to secure an ink supply path.

As described above, since the ink supply member 600, the top plate 1300, the orifice plate 400, and the cartridge body 1000 are each integrally molded parts, not only the assembling accuracy becomes high, but also the quality during mass production is improved. It is extremely effective. Further, since the number of parts is smaller than that of a conventional product, desired excellent characteristics can be surely exhibited.

In this embodiment, after assembling the ink jet cartridge 11, as shown in FIG.
The upper end 603 of the ink supply member 600 and the end 40 of the roof with the elongated opening 1700 of the ink tank 14
08, there is a gap 1701. Similarly, the lower surface portion 604 of the ink supply member 600
A gap (not shown) is formed between the thin plate member and the head-side end portion 4011 to which the lid member 800 below the ink tank 14 is bonded. These gaps further promote the heat radiating action of the opening 1700 and also prevent the unnecessary force applied to the ink tank 14 from being directly applied to the ink supply member 600 and the inkjet unit 13. ing.

In any case, the above-described configuration of the present embodiment is not provided in the related art, and each of them has an effective effect independently, and has a special effect when combined.

Next, attachment of the ink jet cartridge 11 to the carriage 16 will be described. In FIG. 6, a platen roller 5000 includes a recording medium 52.
00 (for example, recording paper) is guided from the back of the drawing paper toward the paper surface. The carriage 16 is a platen roller 500
0 along the longitudinal direction of the carriage 16
Front plate 4 located in front of the ink jet cartridge 11 in front of the platen roller 5000 side.
000 (thickness 2 mm) and a support plate 4 for an electric connection portion to be described later.
003 and a positioning hook 4001 for fixing the ink jet cartridge 11 at a predetermined recording position. The front plate 4000 is provided with protrusions 2500 and 2600 of the support 300 of the ink jet cartridge 11.
And two positioning protruding surfaces 4010 corresponding to the ink jet cartridge 11.
Subject to a vertical force towards 010. For this reason, the reinforcing rib has a plurality of ribs (not shown) on the platen roller 5000 side of the front plate 4000 that are directed in the direction of the vertical force. This rib is slightly (about 0.1mm than the front position L ₅ of the ink jet cartridge 11 when mounted
A degree) A head protection protrusion protruding toward the platen roller 5000 is also formed. The support plate 4003 has a plurality of reinforcing ribs 4004 extending in a direction perpendicular to the plane of the drawing, and the ratio of the protrusions to the sides decreases from the platen roller 5000 side toward the hook 4001 side. Cartridge 11
Are mounted at an angle as shown. The support plate 4003 is provided with a pad 201 corresponding to the pad 201 of the wiring substrate 200 of the ink jet cartridge 11.
1 and a rubber pad sheet 4007 with a notch for generating an elastic force for pressing the flexible sheet 4005 against each pad 2011 from the back side. The support plate 4003 includes the pad 201 and the pad 20
Hook 4001 for applying an operating force to ink jet cartridge 11 in a direction opposite to the operating direction of projecting surface 4010 in order to stabilize the state of electrical contact between
A side positioning surface 4006 is provided corresponding to the protruding surface 4010, a pad contact area is formed between them, and the amount of deformation of the notch of the notched rubber sheet 4007 corresponding to the pad 2011 is uniquely defined. Positioning surface 4006
When the ink jet cartridge 11 is fixed at a recordable position, it comes into contact with the surface of the wiring board 200. Since the pads 201 are then distributed to be symmetrical with respect to the line L ₁ described above, the amount of deformation of each Bocci of Bocci with rubber pad sheet 4007 becomes uniform, the pad 20
The contact pressure between the pad 11 and the pad 201 is further stabilized. In this example, the distribution of the pads 201 is upper, lower two rows, and vertical two rows.

The hook 4001 has a long hole that engages with the fixed shaft 4009. After rotating in the counterclockwise direction from the position shown in FIG.
The inkjet cartridge 11 is positioned with respect to the carriage 16 by moving to the left side in the longitudinal direction of 0. The hook 4001 may be moved in any manner, but is preferably configured to be moved by a lever or the like. In any case, when the hook 4001 rotates, the inkjet cartridge 11 moves toward the platen roller 5000 while the positioning projections 2500 and 2600
000 to a position where it can contact the protruding surface 4010. Due to the leftward movement of the hook 4001, the 90 ° hook surface 4002 comes into close contact with the 90 ° surface of the claw 2100 of the ink jet cartridge 11, and the ink jet cartridge 11 moves in a horizontal plane around the contact area between the projection 2500 and the protruding surface 4010. , And finally the contact between the pad 201 and the pad 2011 starts. And hook 40
When 01 is held at a predetermined position, that is, a fixed position, complete contact between pad 201 and pad 2011, complete contact between protrusions 2500 and 2600 and protruding surface 4010, 90 ° of hook surface 4002 and claw 2100 The two-surface contact and the surface contact between the wiring substrate 200 and the positioning surface 4006 are simultaneously formed, and the holding of the ink jet cartridge 11 with respect to the carriage 16 is completed.

Next, the outline of the ink jet recording apparatus main body will be described.

FIG. 7 shows an overview of the ink jet recording apparatus 15 to which the present invention is applied. Spiral groove 5004
The lead screw 5005 engraved with
013, the driving force transmitting gear 5011,
It is rotationally driven via 5009. The carriage 16
Pin (not shown) provided on mounting portion 5001 (FIG. 6)
By engaging with the spiral wire groove 5004 and being slidably guided by the guide rail 5003,
It is reciprocated in the directions indicated by arrows a and b. Paper holding plate 500
2 is the recording medium 5 over the moving direction of the carriage 16.
200 is pressed against the platen roller 5000. The photocouplers 5007 and 5008 confirm the presence of the lever 5006 of the carriage 16 in this region, and
A home position detecting means for reversing the rotation direction of the motor 13 is constructed. The cap member 5022 for capping the front surface of the inkjet head 12 is
016, and further provided with a suction means 5015, and performs suction recovery of the ink jet head 12 through the opening 5023 in the cap. A support plate 5019 is attached to the main body support plate 5018.
Cleaning blade 5017 slidably supported on
Is moved in the front-rear direction by driving means (not shown). The form of the cleaning blade 5017 is not limited to the illustrated one, and it is needless to say that a known one can be applied to this embodiment. The lever 5012 is used to start the suction recovery operation, and the cam 50 abuts on the carriage 16.
It moves with the movement of 20, and the movement of the driving force from the drive motor 5013 is controlled by a known transmission means such as a gear 5010 or clutch switching.

The capping, cleaning and suction recovery processes are performed at corresponding positions by the action of the lead screw 5005 when the carriage 16 reaches the home position side area. If a desired operation is performed at a known timing, any of the embodiments can be applied. Each of the above-described configurations is excellent both individually and in combination, and shows preferred configuration examples for the present invention.

FIG. 1 shows a sealing tape 1 having a support as a sealing member and its adhesive layer in a direction substantially perpendicular to the arrangement direction of the plurality of discharge ports 30 of FIG. FIG. 10 is a partial perspective view of a step structure from a support 300 to a lid member 800 joined to an adhesive surface of the step structure via a portion. In other words, the sealing tape 1 is brought into close contact with the ejection surface (this surface itself is also a refraction surface in this embodiment) from the portion 1A that is bonded to the support 300, and the portion 1B that is bonded to the lid member 800.
have. In FIG. 1, in FIG. 1A, the seal tape itself is folded back to bond the adhesive portions to each other, and the handle portion 1 for peeling is used.
The example which forms C is shown. This simplifies the configuration of the handle, does not require a useless configuration, and facilitates manufacturing. In FIG. 1B, a new adhesive label is newly provided from above the seal tape, and a strong adhesive is required for the adhesive portion. In FIG. 1C, conversely, a small piece such as paper or film is used as the handle portion by utilizing the adhesive effect of the adhesive portion of the seal tape, and is cheaper than FIG. 1B.

In any case, even with such a configuration, the problem is to provide a condition that can sufficiently exhibit the effect of preventing the seal tape from leaking ink to the discharge ports.

In the following, the criterion for determining the yield load according to the present invention will be described, including experimental results.

Here, the measurement conditions of the sealing tape as the sealing member having the adhesive portion will be described. In the present invention, in order to determine the overall characteristics of the sealing member provided with the adhesive portion, the width of the test piece is set to 10 according to JIS-K-7113.
mm, the pulling speed is 200 mm / min ± 10
The percentage of the load at the time of yielding when the percentage was set was based on the fact that the characteristics of the entire sealing member could be clearly expressed as compared with the conventional case.

Example 1 An acrylic pressure-sensitive adhesive as shown below was applied as a seal tape 1 to a support of a non-stretched polypropylene film (thickness: 30 μm). The surface of the support coated with the acrylic pressure-sensitive adhesive was subjected to a corona discharge treatment.

Adhesive composition 80 parts by weight of butyl acrylate 10 parts by weight of acrylonitrile 10 parts by weight of 2-hydroxyethyl acrylate A mixed solvent of toluene and butyl acetate (50:50)
(Volume ratio) using benzoyl peroxide as a catalyst at 85 ° C. for 8 hours to obtain a copolymer having a weight average molecular weight of 300,000. The copolymer was precipitated using ethanol to remove the residual monomer and low polymer from the copolymer, the residual monomer and low polymer were removed together with the solvent, and dried. The copolymer was newly dissolved in a mixed solvent of toluene and ethyl acetate (50:50 volume ratio), and 10.1 g of dicyclomethane diisocyanate was added to 100 parts by weight of the copolymer to prepare a coating liquid. The coating solution was applied on the support to a thickness of 30 μm after drying, heated and dried at 60 ° C. for 10 minutes, and then subjected to an aging treatment at room temperature for another week to obtain a seal tape A.

Example 2 A seal tape B was obtained in the same manner as in the above-mentioned seal tape A, except that the addition amount of dicyclohexylmethane diisocyanate was changed to 2.5 g.

Example 3 A sealing tape C was obtained in the same manner as the sealing tape B except that the support was a non-stretched polypropylene film (thickness: 20 μm).

Example 4 A seal tape D was obtained in the same manner as in the above-mentioned seal tape B, except that the support was a polyvinylidene chloride film (thickness: 30 μm).

Example 5 A seal tape E was obtained in the same manner as in the aforementioned seal tape B, except that the support was a non-stretched polypropylene film (thickness: 20 μm) containing titanium oxide.

Example 6 A seal tape I was obtained in the same manner as in the aforementioned seal tape A, except that the support was a non-stretched polypropylene film (thickness: 32 μm).

Example 7 A seal tape J was obtained in the same manner as in the aforementioned seal tape B, except that the support was a non-stretched polypropylene film containing titanium oxide (thickness: 25 μm).

Comparative Example 1 A seal tape F was obtained in the same manner as the seal tape A described above, except that the support was a non-stretched polypropylene film (40 μm in thickness).

Comparative Example 2 A seal tape G was obtained in the same manner as in the aforementioned seal tape B except that the support was a non-stretched polypropylene film (thickness: 30 μm) containing titanium oxide.

Comparative Example 3 A sealing tape H was obtained in the same manner as the sealing tape B except that the support was a polyethylene terephthalate film (thickness: 25 μm).

Evaluation method Adhesive force (gf / 25 mm) Seal tapes A to J were measured according to the adhesive force measuring method described in JIS-Z-0237.

As a test plate, stainless steel (SUS30) was used.
The peeling speed was set to 300 mm / min using 4). 2. Yield load (kgf / cm) Seal tapes A to H were measured by a method according to JIS-K-7113 described above.

The test piece was 10 mm wide and the test speed was 200 mm / min. 3. Ink Leakage Using an ink jet recording head having 64 nozzles at a nozzle interval of 16 nozzles per 1 mm, an ink having the following composition was filled into the ink jet recording head.
The sealing tapes A to H were attached to the nozzle surface in the form shown in FIG.

Ink Composition I. 2 parts by weight of food black 2 parts by weight of glycerin 5 parts by weight of urea 5 parts by weight of isopropyl alcohol 5 parts by weight of water 78 parts by weight of each of the ink jet recording heads to which the seal tapes are attached are attached at −30 ° C. for 2 hours, at room temperature for 2 hours, at 60 ° C. for 2 hours. Into a heat cycle tester with one cycle time,
A cycle was performed. After the end of the test, the surface of the nozzle to which the seal tape was attached was observed, and the ink having leaked from the seal tape was evaluated as x, and the ink without leak was evaluated as o.

Table 1 shows the evaluation results.

[0079]

[Table 1]

From the above results, when the yield load is used as a criterion, 1.0 kgf / cm is required to achieve the above object.
It can be understood that the following yield load can prevent ink leakage.

When the case where the seal tape of the above embodiment was applied to a step structure was particularly examined, more preferable conditions could be derived by using a measurement standard as shown in FIG. 8 as a new judgment standard.

That is, the present inventors have found out that the sealing member closed via the adhesive portion has a characteristic which can be called a criterion equivalent to the acting force in the direction in which the sealing member peels off from the step structure portion in a normal state for a long period of time. It was. FIG. 8 is a schematic explanatory diagram for explaining this. Here, T2 may be a fixing part of the measuring member T3 of polysulfone as long as it can hold the measuring member T3 without being deformed. In this embodiment, the adhesive portion 1D of the measuring member T3 is adhered as it is with the adhesive force. The fixed portion T2 is connected to a rotation center axis T7 by a fulcrum T6.
And can move in parallel to the horizontal plane of the electronic balance T5. The distance was 5 mm. The width of the measuring member T3 is arbitrary, but the reference width is 10
In mm, the width of each measurement member is proportionally converted so that the bending load can be compared.

First, as shown in FIG. 8 (a), a measuring member T3 having a free length T4 from the fixing portion of the sealing member provided with the adhesive portion of 10 mm is formed. Adhere to the polysulfone plate T2. Next, the distance is adjusted so as to satisfy the above-mentioned distance of 5 mm, and the surface of the measuring member T3 having no adhesive layer (the surface of the support) is stopped at the center thereof while sliding on the surface of the electronic balance. Read the load instantly,
The value is converted to a value per 10 mm width. In this embodiment, since the width is set to 10 mm, that value may be used as the bending load.

Thus, the obtained bending load is
When applied to the above Examples and Comparative Examples, Table 2 below is obtained.
The evaluation method is the same as in Table 1 above.

[0085]

[Table 2]

Further, when the test pieces were made and subjected to experiments, if the bending load was 0.10 g / cm, no ink leakage occurred immediately after the above experiment, but several hours later, Was found to be practically satisfactory although the seal was slightly peeled off. Of course, preferably, the bending load is 0.08
g / cm or less, and it is needless to say that it is preferable to satisfy the condition that the yield load is 1.0 kg / cm or less.

Therefore, as a criterion for determination of the present invention, it is preferable to make a determination based on the bending load. The bending load at the center of the electronic balance at a distance of 5 mm from the fulcrum on the fixed portion side is determined by the width of the sealing member. 0.10g / cm
The sealing member characterized by the following can exhibit excellent effects that have not been expected in the past.

Here, an atmosphere communication structure effective for the present invention will be described.

In summary, in an ink container having an outside air communication portion for communicating the inside with the outside air and containing ink therein, a plurality of chambers in which the outside air communication portion communicates from the inside to the outside are formed. And an opening portion of each of the plurality of chambers is a small hole as compared with the chamber. According to this, the outside air communication portion is provided between the inner opening and the outer opening with a plurality of chambers which are relatively larger than the openings through the small holes in a stepwise manner, so that ink leakage is prevented. Interference can occur a plurality of times, and even the intruded ink cannot reach the outside without going through the holding space a plurality of times. Therefore, the effect of preventing ink leakage is enormous as compared with the related art. By having a plurality of chambers in this way, it is thought that the evaporation of the ink reaches the saturated water vapor pressure early in the minute space, but the evaporation problem was greatly improved.
In addition, the opening of each of the plurality of chambers has a feature that the positions thereof are shifted from each other, so that a dispersion effect can be given to ink that has entered by impact or vibration, and as a result, an ink leakage prevention effect Can be efficiently achieved even in a small space.

On the other hand, by having a configuration in which the plurality of chambers are located in a direction intersecting with respect to the direction from the inside to the outside, a dispersing effect is similarly provided for ink that has entered by impact or vibration. be able to. According to this configuration, as a result, there is an advantage that the effect of preventing ink leakage can be efficiently exhibited, and the configuration of the outside air communication portion can be reduced in size. Although this configuration is effective even when used alone, the effect is synergistically improved by adding it to the above configuration. Further, with respect to the relative configuration of the plurality of chambers, by satisfying the relationship that the volume is larger as the chamber on the inner side, a large buffering effect is first given to a given space or relatively. This is effective for preventing ink leakage.

On the other hand, when the outside air or atmosphere communication portion is disposed in the ink storage portion and another member continuous from the inner wall surface exists near the communication portion, another problem is raised. That is, ink may be transmitted along a member that is continuous with the inner wall surface. According to the above configuration, this ink can be prevented more reliably than before, but without it, the reliability of the present invention can be further prolonged. Therefore, as a further preferred configuration of the present invention, the opening end portion in the ink storage portion is made to project more inward than such a continuous member. In this case, it is preferable that the opening end is not in contact with a porous body such as an ink absorber.

FIG. 9 is a perspective view of a portion of the air communication section of the entire recording head cartridge. Reference numeral 2 denotes a recording head for discharging liquid droplets by an electric signal, 3 denotes a tank for storing a recording liquid to be supplied to the recording head 2, and 4 denotes an atmosphere for equalizing the internal pressure of the tank 3 with the atmospheric pressure. It is a communication part. Reference numeral 5 denotes a cap member that forms a plurality of chambers with the atmosphere communication port 4, and reference numeral 8 denotes a porous body that holds a recording liquid. Reference numeral 7 denotes a buffer chamber corresponding to the above-described atmospheric pressure supply space 1402 for preventing ink leakage due to a temperature change or a pressure change, and forms a non-contact state between the porous body 8 and the atmosphere communication section 4. The details of the structure of the atmosphere communication section in FIG. 1 are shown in FIG. 10 as a cross-sectional view passing through each opening in FIG. As can be understood from these figures, the atmosphere communication portion is connected to the atmosphere or the outside air in the order of the opening 43 on the inside, the room 44 on the inside, the opening 45 between the rooms, the room 42 on the outside, and the opening 41 on the outside. It has a configuration that communicates toward the user. In the present embodiment, a cap member as shown in the figure is inserted into the cylindrical inner wall 11 of the ink tank while deforming the discharge portion (such as a burr that can be deformed by press-fitting about 0.1 mm) into the air. Although the communicating portion is formed, a component that meets the above-described principle may be mounted on the outer wall of the ink tank in advance.

A partition plate is provided so as to have a pipe-shaped opening directed toward the inside of the ink tank, and to form two rooms when mounted on the cylindrical opening of the tank housing. A hole is provided in the partition plate so that the partition plate communicates with the two rooms. One of the two chambers opens to the inside of the ink tank, and the other opens to the atmosphere outside the ink tank.
The pipe-shaped opening is mounted facing the inside of the ink tank. It is preferable that each opening is positioned at the center of gravity of the surface that opens to each room. Also, it is preferable that the holes provided in the partition plate for partitioning the respective rooms are similarly provided perpendicularly to the partition plate through the center of gravity of the partition plate. The inner diameter of the pipe is preferably formed with an opening having a diameter of 0.5 mm or more and 1.0 mm or less. In this embodiment, each opening has a diameter of 0.
8 mm. The opening 41, which is the final opening, is preferably processed to have a diameter smaller than the size of the opening on the inner side. In this embodiment, the opening 41, which is the final opening, is optimally 0.7 mm in diameter for this purpose.

FIG. 10 is a sectional view when the cap member is mounted. The pipe-shaped opening has a length L (preferably 0.5 mm or more) protruding inward from the ink tank housing.

FIG. 12 shows an ink recorder having a sealing portion formed by attaching a sealing member to an opening from the inside to the outside of a storage portion having ink therein, wherein the opening is deformable. The sealing member is a sphere that seals the opening by deforming the resin material by press-fitting, and the sealing member is described in addition to the structure of the present invention. By adopting a configuration that prevents the ink evaporation preventing effect of the recording head,
The effect of the recording head of the present invention can be further improved. (A) is a sectional view of a bent ink supply path having an opening 602B, (b) is a press-fitting ball 602A, (c)
Indicates a sealed state. In this embodiment, the substantially L-shaped bent ink supply path (a) is composed of the fixed side of the ink conduit 1600 and the ink supply pipe 2200, but is integrally molded of resin. The opening 602B is an opening for venting gas from the mold at the time of integral molding. The resin is deformed and adheres to the surface of the ball to form a reliable sealed state only by press-fitting the press-fitting ball 602A into this opening with a diameter slightly larger than the minimum inner diameter of the opening to be inserted. .

In the present embodiment, the sealing sphere not only seals the opening, but also ensures that the cross-sectional area of the bent portion is equal to that of the ink in order to secure the capillary phenomenon between the ink conduit 1600 and the ink supply tube 2200. Ink conduit 1600 from supply tube 2200
It is configured to decrease toward. As described above, the use of the spherical sealing member has an advantage that the ink flow can be stabilized without disturbing the ink flow.

Specific numerical examples will be given. FIG. 12 (a)
The end of the ink supply pipe 2200 presses against the absorber in the ink tank to supply ink to the head side according to the consumed ink of the recording head.
m. The ink conduit 1600 is connected to the ink supply tube 2200.
On the opposite side, a supply pipe with an inner diameter of 1.0 mm for supplying ink to the common liquid chamber of the recording head is provided.
1.5mm with a tolerance of minus 0.08 or more minus 0.
05 or less. Accordingly, the minimum diameter of the opening is 1.5 mm and the tolerance is −0.08 or more and −0.05 or less, and the front surface of the opening 602B corresponds to a diameter of 2.1 mm so that a spherical sealing member can be easily loaded. Taper is formed. The press-fitting ball 602A in FIG.
It is a rigid metal sphere of 5 mm ± 0.02, such as stainless steel, aluminum, or iron. Therefore, when the ball 602A is pressed into the portion having the smallest diameter of the opening, the resin ink conduit 1600 causes only a slight internal deformation, and FIG.
A closed state is formed as shown in FIG. The sphere is preferably relatively rigid than the opening, but the sphere itself may be formed of resin. However, if the evaporation of the ink is considered, the conventional problem of the evaporation of the adhesive is as follows.
It is preferably a metal sphere. In this case, since the metal is pressed against the resin, a relatively stable sealing state can be maintained for a long time even if there is an environmental change. Looking at the ink resistance, the results of storage at 80 ° C. for 2 months were performed, and the stainless balls were particularly excellent.

Here, the degree of press-fitting the press-fitting ball 602A into the ink conduit 1600 is not limited as long as sealing can be achieved. In the present embodiment, the whole ball 602A is formed by the ink supply pipe 2200. It is buried in the surface. This is preferable because it eliminates the possibility that the sphere is displaced due to contact with other constituent members or the like, and because the manufacturing conditions are reduced and the manufacturing conditions are easy.

Applying the configurations shown in FIGS. 9 and 12 to the present invention, the overall structure is excellent in terms of function, and the simplified configuration can be comprehensively evaluated in the package shown in FIG. In addition to the good storage and elimination of inconvenience at the start of printing, and the effect of preventing ink evaporation, the revolutionary characteristics that provide comprehensive advantages from the point of sale to use and leaving by maintaining the properties of the recording properties when left unattended Can be provided.

Here, FIG. 11 will be briefly described.
The amount of evaporation is suppressed to about 0.6 times as compared with the conventional case. As a result, the number of printed sheets is increased as compared with the same ink filling amount as in the related art. Further, since the evaporation amount is small, the degree of freedom of the package material is increased. Opened immediately, conventional package - cartridge and housing the other package - - Inkuka fitted with air communication part of the present invention be evaporation amount W ₂ is di despite the di high evaporation amount W _1, after opening evaporation Due to the difference in the amount, the total evaporation amount is reversed during use. Thus, the allowable range of evaporation in the package state can be expanded. As a result, the thickness of the package used conventionally can be reduced, for example,
It is also possible to reduce the thickness from 1 mm to 0.6 mm. By reducing the thickness, material cost and productivity can be increased. Also, the lid side can be replaced with an aluminum vapor-deposited film instead of one aluminum foil layer conventionally. As for the lid, the number of steps can be reduced by reducing the number of layers and the cost can be reduced. The following is an example of a package provided with the communication port of the present invention.

Package example Package packaging material 6002 Wall thickness 0.6 mm Package lid 6003 Outermost layer PET 12 μ (Layer configuration) Aluminum 0.05 μ Nylon 15 μ PE 25 μ EVA peel layer 25 μ

The ink-jet cartridge is housed in the above-mentioned package, and further, as shown in FIG.
001.

As described above, the sealing structure of the present invention has a large contribution to achieving simplification of each structure, and exhibits a synergistic effect with other novel structures. It is significant.

[0104]

The protective seal tape of the present invention, which has a sealing structure, can maintain sufficient adhesion for a long period of time even on an uneven surface such as the surface of an ejection port of an ink jet recording head. When applied to the ejection port portion of the head, the ejection port itself can be protected, and ink leakage from the ejection port can be prevented even during long-term storage.

Further, in the invention containing the adhesive of the present invention, the ink is re-peeled quickly even when the ink jet recording head is used after long-term storage, and there is no contamination of the discharge port of the ink jet recording head and its surroundings, which adversely affects the ink jet recording. Protection can be achieved.

In any of the inventions, the present invention achieves the above object without using a protective member other than the protective seal tape as a sealing member (for example, a pressing member for preventing peeling of the seal tape). Can be.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view showing one embodiment of a seal tape according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the ink jet cartridge according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an exploded perspective view of the ink jet cartridge according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a schematic view showing an example of a head unit.

FIG. 5 is a schematic view showing a side surface of a head unit.

FIG. 6 shows mounting of a head unit on a device.

FIG. 7 is a perspective view of a recording apparatus on which the head of the present invention is mounted.

FIG. 8 is a schematic view showing one embodiment of a seal tape according to the present invention and an application step.

FIG. 9 is a perspective view showing a form of an atmosphere communication port of the head of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a form of an atmosphere communication port of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a state where the cartridge of the present invention is housed in a package.

FIG. 12 is a configuration explanatory view of an ink supply unit that connects an ink tank unit and a recording head unit of the cartridge of the present invention,
(A) is an ink supply part, (b) is a sealing ball, (c) is a united view.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 seal tape 5 atmosphere communication port

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing on the front page (72) Takahisa Kawamura 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Inc. (72) Norio Okuma 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Inside (72) Inventor Akihiro Yamanaka 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Inside Canon Inc. (72) Inventor Hiroyuki Ishinaga 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Inside Canon Inc. (72) Inventor Akira Goto 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Inc. (72) Inventor Takashi Watanabe 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Inc. (72) Invention Person Motoaki Sato 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Inside Canon Inc. (72) Inventor Emi Saito 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Within Co., Ltd. (56) Reference Patent Sho 61-125851 (JP, A) JitsuHiraku Akira 61-67136 (JP, U) (58 ) investigated the field (Int.Cl. ^6, DB name) B41J 2/175 B41J 2/165

Claims (12)

(57) [Claims] 1. A sealing member that closes a communication port from inside to outside of a recording storage part having ink therein or a bonding part via an adhesive part, wherein the sealing member having the adhesive part is provided. The stopping member has a pulling speed of 2 according to JIS-K-7113.
When the width of the test piece at 00 mm / min ± 10% is 10
A sealing member characterized by being formed using a sealing member having the above-mentioned adhesive portion, wherein a load at the time of yield in mm is 1 kgf / cm or less. 2. A site closed by the sealing member,
The sealing member according to claim 1, wherein the sealing member is applied to a step structure portion of a recording storage unit. 3. An ink storage section, an energy generating element for discharging ink in the ink storage section, an ink discharge section corresponding to the energy generating element, and ink recording for closing the discharge section via an adhesive section. In a recording head having a head sealing member, the sealing member provided with the adhesive portion has a pulling speed of 200 according to JIS-K-7113.
mm / min ± 10% when the width of the test piece is 10 mm
Wherein the load at the time of yield is 1 kgf / cm or less. 4. The pressure-sensitive adhesive according to claim 1, wherein the pressure-sensitive adhesive contains an alkyl acrylate containing an OH group and / or an alkoxyalkyl acrylate, and a C4 to C9 alkyl group or
The acrylic ester copolymer obtained by crosslinking an acrylic acid copolymer obtained by using at least 80% by weight or more with an acrylic ester having a side chain of an alkoxyalkyl group with an isocyanate. Recording head. 5. The ink generating head according to claim 3, wherein the energy generating element of the ink recording head includes an electrothermal converter for generating thermal energy used for discharging ink. Recording head. 6. The recording head according to claim 3, wherein the portion closed by the seal member has a step structure. 7. A sealing member that closes a communication port from inside to outside of a recording storage section having ink inside or a bonding section via an adhesive section, wherein the sealing section having the adhesive section is provided. It is assumed that the stop member has a free length of 10 mm from the fixing portion and the bending load at the center of the electronic balance at a distance of 5 mm from the fulcrum on the fixing portion side is 0.10 g / cm or less with respect to the width of the sealing member. A sealing member characterized by the following. 8. The sealing member provided with the adhesive portion is made of JI
According to SK-7113, the pulling speed is 200 mm /
The test piece is formed using a sealing member provided with the above-mentioned adhesive portion, the load at the time of yield when the width of the test piece is 10 mm when the min ± 10% is set to 10% or less. Item 8. The sealing member according to Item 7. 9. An ink storage unit, an energy generating element for discharging ink in the ink storage unit, and an ink discharging unit corresponding to the energy generating element, wherein the discharging unit is connected via an adhesive unit. 9. A recording head using the sealing member according to claim 7 as a sealing member for an ink recording head to close. 10. The pressure-sensitive adhesive wherein the acrylic acid alkyl ester and / or the acrylic acid alkoxyalkyl ester containing an OH group and a C4 to C9 alkyl group or
The acrylic ester copolymer obtained by crosslinking an acrylic acid copolymer obtained by using at least 80% by weight or more of an acrylic ester having an alkoxyalkyl group side chain with an isocyanate isocyanate isocyanate. Recording head. 11. The recording head according to claim 10, wherein the energy generating element of the ink recording head includes an electrothermal transducer for generating thermal energy used for discharging ink. 12. A part closed by the seal member has a step structure, and the bending load is 0.05 g /
The recording head according to claim 11, wherein the recording head is 0.01 g / cm or more and cm or less.